After a successful and exciting first year, Mega Bloks will soon launch their second edition of the Halo Toymation Fest, a community-driven competition in which Halo fans can create and submit their own Mega Bloks Halo toymations (stop motion animations featuring toys) for a chance to win incredible prizes.

The official 2012 Mega Bloks Halo Toymation website, launched on August 3rd, will once again be the home page to many hopeful contestants. At this time, fans can visit the site to learn more about the different genres of videos they will be allowed to submit, discover the panel of judges and the amazing prizes to be won, receive details about the voting criteria and tips on stop motion animation.

“We are eager to launch our second Mega Bloks Halo Toymation Fest”, said Andrew Sparkes, Vice President of Kids and Collectors at MEGA Brands. “Last year, fans really proved their dedication to the Halo brand and allowed us to see the love for our Mega Bloks products shine through the creativity of their amazing productions. We can’t wait to see what they will come up with next.”

“I had the honour of being one of the judges in last year’s Halo toymation contest, and the videos the Mega Bloks community made with just blocks, a video camera, and the magic of editing was absolutely mind-blowing”, said Jessica Shea, a.k.a. BS Angel, Community Manager at 343 Industries and avid HALO gamer. “So to say I’m excited about seeing this year’s entries would definitely be an understatement!”

The submission and voting periods will roll-out as such:

Phase 1 (August 3 – September 17) – Official website launch. Early submissions open September 1, at which point contestants will be invited to enter videos into the following categories: action, comedy, drama, classical and sports.

Phase 3 (November 6- November 26) — Face-Off: The 2012 Mega Bloks Halo Toymation Fest will introduce its “Face Off” stage. At this time, the top 2 videos in each category will go head-to-head as voters pick the finalists.

Phase 4 (December 5) –– Unveiling of contest winners: this year, top videos will be ranked per category by MEGA’s panel of expert judges.

The lucky winner and runners-up will get the chance to win prizes that include video production hardware and software, a variety of Mega Bloks Collectors building sets and one-of-a kind Mega Bloks Halo collector items!

This edition’s exciting panel of expert judges include:

Jessica Shea a.k.a BS Angel

Jason Forthofer, co-owner and co-host of The Brick Show

Larry Hryb, better known by his Xbox LIVE Gamertag of ‘Major Nelson’, the Director of Programming for Xbox Live